British offensive in the Nguru Mountains

At dawn on 5 August 1916 the main force of General Jan Smuts resumed its march south through German East Africa. Since July it had been standing on the Msiha river, several dozen kilometres beyond Handeni, taken in June. Ahead of it lay the Nguru Mountains, and beyond them the valley of the Wami river and the road to Morogoro on the Central Railway. Smuts did not want to attack the German positions frontally. He decided to outflank them in a wide arc through the mountains and close the Germans’ line of retreat. The British chronology of the war records this day as the start of the march through the Nguru Mountains.

The position at Ruhungu

A few kilometres south of the camp on the Msiha the main road reached the first hills. It was dominated by the steep Ruhungu ridge, a spur of the Kanga massif, which was separated from the main Nguru range by the wide valley of the Mjonga river. On its slopes the Germans of Major Georg Kraut held a strong position, protected in front by a swampy river, on the left by precipitous mountains and on the right by bush and marshland. From the ridges of Kanga German observers could see every movement in the British camp. From here they directed the fire of two guns from the cruiser Königsberg, which between 9 July and 8 August fired some 570 shells at the camp and killed or wounded about 60 men. The soldiers called it “Shell Camp”. The British guns did not have the range to reply.

Smuts later explained in his report that forcing his way along the road through such formidable obstacles, or outflanking them on the left through the bush and tall elephant grass, would have exposed his rear to a German attack from the mountains. He had to go through the mountains themselves and clear them as he went. Scouts reported that three passes led through the Nguru range. The British official history (Hordern) estimates the German forces in the area at 18–19 companies, that is 3,000–3,500 soldiers. In the 1st and 3rd Divisions Smuts had eleven infantry battalions and four mounted regiments, about 7,000 men in all, and much more artillery.

Three columns

The troops did not set out from the Msiha itself, where the enemy could see them, but from new camps on the Lukigura river, further to the rear, even though this meant a longer march through the bush. Furthest west went the 2nd South African Mounted Brigade of Brigadier-General B. G. L. Enslin, newly arrived in East Africa. It was to pass the German posts at Kimbe, turn south through the mountains into the Lwale valley and seize Turiani, through which Kraut’s line of retreat ran. Behind it, with the rest of the 3rd Division, advanced General Coenraad Brits with two South African infantry battalions of Brigadier-General P. S. Beves. Closer in, along the floor of the Mjonga valley, the 2nd East African Brigade of Brigadier-General J. A. Hannyngton was to advance. Meanwhile the 1st East African Brigade of Brigadier-General S. H. Sheppard was to demonstrate against the position at Ruhungu and hold the Germans there.

The very first day showed the difficulties. Enslin passed Kimbe, but the German post slipped away from him to the south, and one of his regiments lost touch with the brigade and went astray in the mountains. The heavy lorries of the 3rd Division got stuck less than five kilometres from camp, on uneven ground among tree stumps and tall grass, and had to be left behind. Hannyngton, who was marching through Hesapo on Mahasi, dispersed a German detachment there on 6 August, but his transport, too, could not cope with the mountain path. Hordern writes that the scouts who had judged the routes passable had not taken wheeled transport into account at all.

A plan that fell apart

Over the following days Enslin crossed the mountains and on 8 August reached the Mhonda mission, but there he was stopped by German units that Kraut had brought up from Ruhungu. Sheppard judged the ground along the river unsuitable for an attack and returned to camp, so no one disturbed the position at Ruhungu. On 10 August the column of Brits and Hannyngton fought a hard action at Matamondo in the Mjonga valley. Meanwhile, on 9 August, the last German companies had left the position at Ruhungu and moved off south by the road through Turiani. Hordern considers that the absence of any demonstration against Ruhungu largely decided the failure of the plan. Smuts had once again managed to manoeuvre Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck out of a strong position, but not to destroy his forces. In the same days the 2nd Division of General van Deventer, which at the end of July had reached the Central Railway, set off east along the line towards Morogoro.